hiring staff

is it possible to hire staff that you don't need to start till next season? I will lose my top driver and my head designer at the end of this season, so I want to start looking for replacements now but I don't want to pay them to sit around and wait till the end of this season doing nothing

I see what your saying, but someone could sign them for this season, then they start with you the next season, also in real life if red bull was told by a driver he was leaving at the end of the season and they told toro rosso that they are taking one of there young drivers, would toro rosso not tell some young driver that is not driving in f1 this year that you can drive for us next year but you don't start getting payed till then ?

nope - because said young driver would be driving for someone! - not sitting there twiddling thumbs. - you could look at the divisions in pitwall as different formulas. - ie div 1 is F1 - div 2 is GP2 - div 3 is formula ford etc. and below that is karting and the youth races.

The Red Bull/Toro Rosso scenario you gave isn't really relative as Red Bull own Toro Rosso and they have their own youth program which they generally promote out of. Several of the drivers in GP2/3, Formula Renault, etc. are employed by F1 teams and are paid by them but race in lower categories as they are not ready yet for F1. When Toro Rosso/Red Bull signed Max Verstappen, he joined the team immediately and was doing free practice sessions until he was put in the car for the following season.

Back to the point of the question though, I think it should be possible to have a start date on contracts with free persons (it shouldn't be any later than week 1 of the following season) but it would be a big negative point on the contract for the person as they would want to start right away.

but I have a youth program that I am paying drivers for from the age of 4. I think the red bull toro rosso scenario is relative, as I bet red bull are not paying a youth driver in GP2/3, Formula Renault the same wage as max verstappen and max is not getting what Daniel ricciardo is getting now. all I would like to see is some way not to pay lots of wages for someone that wont drive till next season. like the way adam said